Faculty-Staff Achievements, Dec. 11, 2013

Faculty-Staff Achievements, Dec. 11, 2013

Publications

Monica Das, associate professor of economics, is co-author (with Sandwip Kumar Das, State University
of New York, Albany) of Economic Growth and Income Disparity in BRIC: Theory and Empirical Evidence (2013, World Scientific). The recent interest in the development processes of BRIC
countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) has been triggered by their high growth
performance, but their political and social backgrounds are entirely different. The
book traces the economic history of BRIC countries to understand their economic and
social institutions. The only common theme in this growth story is the high levels
of income disparities and poverty that are observed even during the high growth decades.
Read more.

Jennifer Delton, professor of history, is the author of Rethinking the 1950s — How Anticommunism and the Cold War Made America Liberal (October 2013, Cambridge University Press). Historians generally portray the 1950s
as a conservative era when anticommunism and the Cold War subverted domestic reform,
crushed political dissent, and ended liberal dreams of social democracy. These years,
historians tell us, represented a turn to the right, a negation of New Deal liberalism,
an end to reform. Delton argues that, far from subverting the New Deal state, anticommunism
and the Cold War enabled, fulfilled, and even surpassed the New Deal's reform agenda.
Anticommunism solidified liberal political power and the Cold War justified liberal
goals such as jobs creation, corporate regulation, economic redevelopment, and civil
rights. Eric Arnesen of George Washington University calls it a “genuinely original,
important, and provocative book.” Read more.

-- "Classification, naming and evolutionary history of glycosyltransferases from sequenced
green and red algal genomes," in PLOS ONE doi10:1371/jornal.pone.0076511, 2013. Co-authors include Peter Ulvskov, Dionisio
Paiva and Jesper Harholt of the University of Copenhagen.

Heather Hurst ’97, assistant professor of anthropology, contributed to The Spectacle of the Late Maya Court (July 2013, University of Texas Press, Co-published with the Instituto Nacional de
Antropología e Historia, Mexico). Located within the deep tropical rainforest of Chiapas,
Mexico, the Maya site of Bonampak is home to the most complete and magnificent mural
program of the ancient Americas…. This major new study of the paintings of Bonampak
incorporates insights from decades of art historical, epigraphic, and technical investigation
of the murals, framing questions about artistic conception, facture, narrative, performance,
and politics. Lavishly illustrated, this book assembles thorough documentation of
the Bonampak mural program, from historical photographs of the paintings—some never
before published—to new full-color reconstructions by artist Hurst and Leonard Ashby.
Read more.

Penny Howell Jolly, professor of art history, is the author of Picturing the “Pregnant” Magdalene in Northern Art, 1430 - 1550: Addressing and Undressing
the Sinner-saint, (January 2014, Ashgate Publishing). Examining innovations in Mary Magdalene imagery
in northern art 1430 to 1550, Penny Jolly explores how the saint’s widespread popularity
drew upon her ability to embody oppositions and embrace a range of paradoxical roles:
sinner-prostitute and saint, erotic seductress and holy prophet. Diane Wolfthal of
Rice University writes, “With a sharp eye and a thorough understanding of the rich
and complex cult of the Magdalen, Jolly analyzes visual imagery to successfully explain
the broad appeal of the Magdalen, a prostitute who became a saint.” The book is part
of a series called Women and Gender in the Early Modern World. Read more.

Jill Linz, senior teaching associate, Department of Physics, has new versions of her children’s
book Adventures in Atomville: The Macroscope, now available. Originally published in 2009 for readers in grades three through six,
the book tells the story of Livvie, an oxygen atom, and Niles, a nitrogen atom. New
iBook and Kindle editions offer interactive and graphic benefits. Linz’s co-author
is Cindy Schwartz of the Vassar College Physics Department. Schwartz points to a greater
level of engagement by young readers using the interactive features, which include
video, sound, and color illustrations that “add scientific depth,” according to a
Vassar College news release.

Sonia Silva, associate professor of anthropology, is the author of an article titled "Remarks
on Similarity in Ritual Classification: Affliction, Divination and Object Animation,"
published in History of Religions, Vol. 53, No. 2, 2013.